Place, Stratford (which he purchased from the Underwood family in 1597), and from the wood of which snuff-boxes and other relics were freely handed about for sale at this Jubilee.

11. 747-818. This view of the restoration of all things' was the specimen extract Cowper sent to Mr. Newton, when he first informed the latter that he was again at Johnson's.' (Oct. 30, 1784.) To Unwin alone had he confided the secret of his Poem during its progress. As I have admitted into my description no images but what are scriptural, and have aimed as exactly as I could at the plain and simple sublimity of the Scripture language, I have hopes the manner of it may please you. As far as the numbers and diction are concerned, it may serve pretty well for a sample of the whole." -To Newton, Nov. 27, 1784.

1.766. Psalm lxv. 14 (Prayer-book Version).

1. 768. Cp. Genesis iii. 17, 18.

1. 773. Libbard;-old poetical form of 'leopard.' Spenser has the word, Faery Queene, i. 6. 25, and Shakspeare, Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2. Ben Jonson, in the Masque of Queens, calls the Aconite libbard's-bane.

1. 774. Isaiah lxv. 25.

1. 780. In defence of this use of the word worm in its old sense of 'serpent,' Cowper reminds Newton of Par. Lost (ix. 1068) and Ant. and Cleop. v. 2; and adds, 'A worm is a small serpent, and a serpent is a large worm. And when an epithet significant of the most terrible species of those creatures is adjoined, the idea is surely sufficiently ascertained. No animal of the vermicular or serpentine kind is crested, but the most formidable of all.'-To Newton, Dec. 11, 1784. Moreover, worm is pure Scandinavian for a serpent.

6

1. 805. Nebaioth and Kedar, the sons of Ishmael, and progenitors of the Arabs, in the prophetic Scripture here alluded to [Isaiah lx. 3-7] may be reasonably considered as representatives of the Gentiles at large.-C.

1. 806. Cp. Milton's wealth of Ormus and of Ind,' Par. Lost, ii. 2. But why the looms of Ormus'? This was an Island in the Persian Gulf, famed for its diamonds.

1. 810. Cp. Isaiah lx. 18.

1. 868. Cp. Rev. vi. 15-17. 1. 871. 2 Peter iii. 4.

1. 884. Theophilus Lindsey, A.M., Vicar of Catterick in Yorkshire, having embraced Unitarian opinions, resigned his living in 1773, and opened a chapel in Essex Street, Strand. His example was followed by several other beneficed clergymen, on the same grounds; amongst others by Dr. John Disney, Rector of Panton and Vicar of Swinderby, who succeeded Lindsey in the Essex Street Chapel.

1. 898. Cp. St. Jude 13. 1. 949. Genesis xxiv. 63.

11. 1006-16. The Poet here alludes to the fact that The Task, which he had commenced in June, 1783, 'in obedience to the fair' Lady Austen, was continued in the graver tone which was more likely to please Mrs. Unwin, after his rupture with Lady Austen in May, 1784. See Life, vol. i.

1. 1024. What there is of a religious cast in the volume I have thrown towards the end of it, for two reasons; first that I might not revolt the reader at his entrance, and secondly, that my best impressions might be made last. Were I to write as many volumes as Lope de Vega, or Voltaire, not one of them would be without this tincture.'-To Unwin, Oct. 10, 1784. The judgment of the world has justified the anticipation of the Poet, who wrote thus to Mr. Newton, Dec. 11, 1784:— Though as little apt to be sanguine as most men, and more prone to fear and despond, than to overrate my own productions, I am persuaded that I shall not forfeit anything by this volume, that I gained by the last.'

TIROCINIUM.

This poem was commenced in 1782, when it grew to the length of 200 lines, and then stopped.'-To Unwin, Oct. 20, 1784. The Poet resumed it two years later; and the date of its completion is fixed by the dedication to the Rev. W. C. Unwin,' the Tutor of his two sons,' Nov. 6, 1784. It was published with The Task, in July, 1785. 'I am mistaken, if Tirocinium do not make some of my friends angry, and procure me enemies not a few. There is a sting in verse, that prose neither has, nor can have: and I do not know that schools in the gross, and especially public schools, have ever been so pointedly condemned before. But they are becoming a nuisance, a pest, an abomination; and it is fit that the eyes and noses of mankind should, if possible, be open to perceive it.'-To Unwin, May 8, 1784. 'It treats of the scandalous relaxation of discipline that obtains in almost all schools . . . It recommends the office of tutor to the father, where there is no real impediment; the expedient of a domestic tutor where there is; and the disposal of boys into the hands of a respectable country clergyman, who limits his attention to two, in all cases where they cannot be conveniently educated at home.'-To Newton, Nov. 27, 1784. The motto was furnished by Mr. Bull, in reply to the following humorous request (Nov. 8, 1784):-'Find me one in any of your multitudinous volumes, no matter whether it be taken from Burgersdicius, Bogtrottius, or Puddengulpius, the more recondite the better; the world will suppose at least that I am familiar with the author whom I quote: and though the supposition will be an erroneous one, it will do them no harm, and me some good,' 1. 33. Cp. Romans ii. 15.

1. 120. The Horn-book is a thing of the past. It was the alphabet-book, which was a thin board of oak, about nine inches long, and five or six wide, on which was printed the alphabet, the nine digits, and sometimes the Lord's Prayer. It had a handle, and was covered in front with a sheet of thin horn, to prevent its being soiled. The board and its horn cover were held together by a narrow frame or border of brass.'-Brewer's Dict. of Phrase and Fable, p. 417.

1. 135. Dreamer ;-John Bunyan.

1. 163. See 2 Chron. xxvi. 19.

1. 197. The author begs leave to explain:-Sensible that without such knowledge neither the ancient poets and historians can be tasted, or indeed understood, he does not mean to censure the pains that are taken to instruct a schoolboy in the religions of the heathen, but merely that neglect of Christian culture which leaves him shamefully ignorant of his own.'—C.. Cowper tells us that he acquired Latin and Greek at the expense of much more important knowledge' (S. i. 8); having left Westminster tolerably well furnished with grammatical knowledge, but as ignorant of all kinds of religion as the satchel at his back.' (S. i. 14.)

1. 230. Hairbreadth scapes;-Othello, i. 3.

1. 266. Ubiquarian. I do not know the Poet's authority for this word, which is not in the Dictionaries. The usual form of the adjective is 'ubiquitary,' for which 'ubiquitous' is sometimes used colloquially.

1. 267. See 2 Kings v. 26.

1. 361. This classical use of the word 'prolix' for 'long and loose' (Lat. pro laxus) is rare in English.

1. 421. Cp. 1. 826.

1. 435. Dr. Robert Lowth (born 1710, died 1787) was the son of Dr. William Lowth the commentator. Having been educated at Winchester and New College, he became successively Bishop of St. David's in 1766; of Oxford in the same year; and of London, 1777-87. He had been appointed as Professor of Poetry at Oxford in 1741: and in 1753 he published his Praelections, under the title of De Sacra Poesi Hebraeorum. His other works were, a Life of William of Wykeham, 1758; an Introduction to English Grammar, 1761; and a Translation of the Prophet Isaiah, 1778. Dr. Lewis Bagot, fifth son of Sir Walter Wagstaffe Bagot, fifth Baronet of Blythefield, Staffordshire, and brother of William first Lord Bagot, was born in 1740, and died in 1802. Proceeding from Westminster to Oxford, he was successively Dean of Christ Church; Bishop of Bristol in 1782; of Norwich in 1783; and of St. Asaph, 1790-1802. The Poet gives Unwin his reasons for the compliment,' thus :-'I wished the world to know that I have no objection to a bishop, quâ bishop. In the second place, the brothers were all five my schoolfellows, and very amiable and. valuable boys they were. Thirdly, Lewis, the Bishop, had been rudely and

coarsely treated in the Monthly Review, on account of a sermon which appeared to me, when I read their extract from it, to deserve the highest commendation, as exhibiting explicit proof both of his good sense and unfeigned piety.'-(Dec. 18, 1784.) The allusion here is to the Discourses on the Prophecies concerning the First Establishment and Subsequent History of Christianity,' delivered by Dr. Bagot as Warburtonian Lecturer in 1780. The Rev. Walter Bagot, an elder brother of the Bishop's, was Cowper's correspondents: and to him the latter wrote (Jan. 15, 1786), When I can hear of the rest of the bishops, that they preach and live as your brother does, I will think more respectfully of them than I feel inclined to do at present.' Cp. letter to W. Bagot, Nov. 9, 1785.

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one of

11. 436-53. Connexions formed at school are said to be lasting, often beneficial. There are two or three stories of this kind upon record, which would not be so constantly cited as they are whenever this subject happens to be mentioned, if the chronicle that preserves their remembrance had many besides them to boast of. For my own part I found such friendships, though warm enough in their commencement, surprisingly liable to extinction; and of seven or eight whom I had selected for intimates, out of about three hundred, in ten years' time not one was left me.'-To Unwin, Oct. 5, 1780. 1. 500. Jachin and Boaz;-the names given to the two pillars of brass set up in the porch of King Solomon's Temple. See I Kings vii. 15-22. 1. 508. Pope's Essay on Man, Epistle iii. 304.

1. 542. Vestris;-see note on Conversation, 1. 58.

11. 555-76. At eight or nine years of age the boy goes to school. From that moment he becomes a stranger in his father's house. Year after year

he feels himself more and more detached from his parents, till at last he is so effectually weaned from the connexion, as to find himself happier anywhere than in their company.'-To Unwin, Sept. 17, 1780.

EPISTLE TO HILL.

Poems 1785, i. 285.

Written in the middle of Nov. 1784. I wrote it on Wednesday last; a tribute so due that I must have disgraced myself had I not paid it. He ever serves me in all that he can, though he has not seen me these twenty years.'-To Unwin, Nov. 20, 1784. Hill was Cowper's senior at Westminster. He was an attorney in Great Queen Street, a man of much quiet humour, but of regular habits and close application to business: and through Cowper's introduction he afterwards became secretary to Lord Chancellor Thurlow. He and the Poet were fellow-members of the Nonsense Club (cp. letter to Hill, June 9, 1785), and Hill was the kind and efficient

manager of all Cowper's pecuniary affairs throughout his life. He survived the Poet, and died at an advanced age.

+

ODE TO APOLLO.

Poems, 1794, ii. 350.

THE FAITHFUL BIRD.

Poems, 1794, ii. 359. The last verse is given as it stands in ed. 1808.

PAIRING TIME ANTICIPATED.

Poems, 1794, ii. 361.

1. 1. Rousseau ;—' It was one of the whimsical speculations of this philosopher, that all fables which ascribe reason and speech to animals should be withheld from children, as being only vehicles of deception. But what child was ever deceived by them, or can be, against the evidence of his sense?'-C.

THE NEEDLESS ALARM.
Poems, 1794, ii. 365.

11. 3, 36. Kilwick and Dinglederry;- Two woods belonging to John Throckmorton, Esq.'-C.

THE YEARLY DISTRESS.

Poems, 1803, i. 257.

The Rev. W. Cawthorne Unwin, having been educated at the Charterhouse, and at Christ's College, Cambridge, became Rector of Stock-cum-RamsdenBelhouse, in Essex. While on a tour in the south of England, with Mr. Henry Thornton (a son of the philanthropic John Thornton), he was seized with typhus fever, of which he died at Winchester, Nov. 29, 1786, leaving a widow and three young children. He was buried in Winchester Cathedral.

GRATITUDE.
Hayley, 1803, ii. 266.

Written in 1786, when Lady Hesketh furnished Weston Lodge for Cowper.

1. 40. Mulciber;- another name for Vulcan the divine smith, probably from Lat. mulcere, 'to soften,' in allusion to the effects of fire in melting metal.